Johnny Miles is a songwriter & performer based out of Philadelphia whose 3rd full-length record “When The Saints Sleep” is slated for release this fall on independent label TREE records.
“Musically,” quips Johnny, “I guess it’s sort of a ‘contemporary-re-interpretation-of-a-chuck-berry-stones-y-kinda-high-energy-rock-and-roll-sound’ cake with a bit of a ‘ghostly-reverb-slight-desperation-delay’ icing, stuffed with some intense emotional imagery, laced with razor-sharp execution, and topped with a big ol’ bucket of brass (which is to say impudent-brazen-chutzpah-balls, not instruments).” How’s that for an elevator-pitch?
Lyrically there’s a rhythmic prose-like quality, depicting, as the subtitle suggests, ‘the dream of a time yet to be in the ghost of a town that never was and the emotional toll exacted on its casualties.’ Songs like the title track “When the Saints Sleep” & “Sweet Sigh Of Relief” offer a bit of a third-person-omniscient narration, establishing a setting and setting a tone. Songs such as “Hangin On To The Hoping”, “Down On The Ground”, “Who Could Believe”, “Already Gone Away” and “At Least I Can Dream” introduce character outlines of complex people doing the best with what they’ve got, trying to make it work in the face of what would seem to be insurmountable odds. While songs like “The Story Of My Love” & “Slow Like My Memories” offer a bit of a fractured-glass abstraction and still others such as “In Rise And Fall” and “Born To These Bones” are sweeping summations shot through with wisdom and morality. As a whole and taken as a group “When The Saints Sleep” is a striking collection of struggle and strength, conjuring up a world which is equal parts joy, suffering and salvation.
Hitting the greater Philadelphia area hard in preparation for the album’s release, Johnny and his band ‘the Waywards’ made stops at The Kimmel Center, The Bethlehem Musikfest, & The Philadelphia Folk Festival to name a few, where the electric 5-piece caused quite a stir with their blazingly raucous rock-and-roll sets. Early converts to the group include WXPN’s Helen Leicht, who started working the new album’s title track into the on-air rotation and the Philadelphia Songwriters Project, who named Miles one of their 2010 international songwriting contest winners.
Though still managing all the band’s and the label’s affairs by himself, Miles remains optimistic: “It can be difficult going up against the enormous power of the majors with their seven-figure-promotional-budgets, particularly in an age when most people don’t even buy physical copies of a record anymore, but I think there’s a burgeoning suspicion that Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry aren’t really where it’s at, that 25 years from now no one is going to be listening to this stuff, that you’re losing something with an mp3, and if town by town, audience by audience, we can manage to carve out a little niche for ourselves, contribute a little square to the quilt, at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about.” hammering his point home, he continues, “If we can play some small role in a grassroots return to art and authenticity, then it’s all worthwhile. I don’t make music for Billboard, I make it for my grand-kids.”
One can’t help but think of Miles’ admittedly major influences: Dylan, Young, Springsteen, & Tom Waits, who once said, “I’ve always believed the way you affect your audience is more important than how many of them there are.” With the release of “When The Saint Sleep” one thing is certain: Miles’ audience stands poised to be both affected and expanding.
"Sign Of The Times" 2007
"Miles is a master at joining together word and sound to form something greater.each song resonates with passion and power.A new American folk hero."
-Uwishunu Philly
“It’s a quick scribble across the American landscape.The lyrics are commanding.has the hard-bitten self-awareness of a protest song as well as a hooky alt-country catchiness”
- Philadelphia Weekly
“It’s a gorgeous record when I think about where it has taken me, not only musically, but the photographs that flash in my mind from Johnny’s accomplished lyricism.To be affected by how he captures images, that’s really what great music is all about.”
- The Musicologist
“Miles doesn’t try to be an old soul, I think he really has one.”
- Herohill
“A singer-songwriter worth watching.”
- Online Folk Festival
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For Booking & All Other Inquiries Please Email: johnnymilesmusic@gmail.com
